In an ink jet type recording apparatus according to an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus, an ink cartridge accommodating an ink therein is attached, thereby discharging the ink to an object to be recorded and carrying out recording upon receipt of the supply of the ink from the ink cartridge.
A type of the ink to be used in the ink jet type recording apparatus includes a dye type and a pigment type, and an ink of the pigment type is obtained by uniformly dispersing dispersion particles such as a pigment into a solvent and mixing them. Such an ink of the pigment type has a property that print is not carried out for a long period of time and the dispersion particle sinks in a difference in a specific gravity between the solvent and the dispersion particle when the ink is put in a non-circulation state in an ink container.
As the ink cartridge for supplying the ink to the ink jet type recording apparatus, there has been developed an ink cartridge in which a division into an upper ink containing portion and a lower ink containing portion is carried out and these communicate with each other through a connecting passage (a communicating portion).
In the ink cartridge of this type, a liquid supply port for communicating with the upper ink containing portion is provided with liquid supply means for supplying the ink in the upper ink containing portion to the ink jet type recording apparatus based on a difference in a pressure between the ink jet type recording apparatus side and the ink cartridge side in the case in which the ink is consumed in the ink jet type recording apparatus (for example, see Patent Document 1).
However, the ink cartridge has a problem in that a thick ink sinking in the lower ink containing portion is first supplied to the upper ink containing portion through the connecting passage, and the thick ink is used and a thin ink is then supplied so that the thickness of the ink to be supplied to the ink jet type recording apparatus has a variation.
Moreover, the Patent Document 1 has described the ink cartridge having a structure in which a passage is disposed in the perpendicular and horizontal portions of an L-shaped partition wall surrounding a connecting passage. In the structure, the connecting passage is provided just below the passage of the horizontal portion. Therefore, there is a problem in that the ink in the vicinity of the horizontal portion meets the connecting passage and a flow in a vertical direction in which the thick ink and the thin ink are stirred is not generated in the lower ink containing portion.
Therefore, there has been proposed an ink cartridge having a structure in which a stirring and moving member for moving in each ink containing portion to stir a liquid in the ink containing portion is put in the containing portion and a thick ink and a thin ink which are separated vertically in the ink containing portion are mixed again by a stirring force generated by the stirring and moving member, thereby causing the thickness of the ink to be supplied to be uniform (for example, see Patent Documents 2 and 3).    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-80730    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2003-266730    Patent Document 3: JP-A-9-309212